Stopping by the Woods

Why do we have to term our various film industries with a “-wood”, in slavish reference to Hollywood?

If Wilford E. Deming hadn’t been sent by Fox Studios to India with the objective of exploring the local film market in the early 20th century, the term Tollywood wouldn’t have been born. But, the fact is that Deming, who had experimented with several professions including film-making, did come here. During his association with Indian films, it was he who had coined the term Tollywood in an article in the journal American Cinematographer in 1932.

A portmanteau of Tollygunge which serves as the residence of many film studios and Hollywood, Deming’s brainchild showed the limitations of his imagination. At the same time, however, its widespread manipulation by the other film industries is an indication that the quest for simplistic branding is a never-ending one.

Tollywood as a term was Deming’s way of seeking to simplify the process of understanding for a readership that was unfamiliar with a geographically and culturally distant nation. Tolly rhymed with Holly and linking it with the ‘wood’ of Hollywood would have served as an easy starting point for comprehension. A place that makes films in India: that much and no further would have been conveyed with ease, acting as a curiosity enhancer.

In the India of the 21st century, anybody who has read some poetry in English will be reminded of a Robert Frost poem whenever ‘woods’ is used as a word. Because of repeated readings of the lucid yet haunting poem, its famous line ‘miles to go before I sleep’ refuses to vacate one’s mind space. That our nation has several woods without any literary or geographical association won’t come to our minds:  at least, not if we are trying to solve riddles of the intricate variety.

But, think of this. Decades after Deming left India, our nation is home to several woods. Tollywood is around, but the term can take us to both Bangla and Telugu film industries. With several Hollywood films being shot in Taiwan, among them Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, the local industry is being also referred to as Tollywood. With three Tollywoods around, who needs more?

Stating the language in which a film has been made while communicating to the masses is perfectly understandable. Try as we might to explain why Bollywood has to be called Bollywood, the fact is that there is no satisfactory answer. The occasional dissenting voice conveys its exasperation, but the mainstream media, in its quest for giving headlines that consume less space and helps in designing the page, continues to use the word.  ‘Hindi’ and ‘films’ are two words. There is space in between. Bollywood implies both. So, easy.  News websites seek the same short cut for design-related convenience, whereas why TV anchors and reporters use the word and similar others guiltlessly is a question only they can answer.

For years, we are being told that the reach of Indian films has expanded way beyond India and NRIs in different countries. It is a lie. There is a huge difference between slight growth and significant expansion. While certain stars enjoy a cult status in a few countries, we don’t have anybody who compares to an Al Pacino or a Leonardo di Caprio in terms of international popularity which, whether or not we like it, is the monopoly of Hollywood.

Indian cinema’s peripheral existence as an art form with its own individuality explains why many writers in the Western media still refer to them as ‘musicals.’ While such uninformed persons don’t understand that songs are integral to our cinematic culture and seldom do they take stories forward which musicals do, they succeed in marketing themselves as writers with a deep-rooted understanding of a practically alien culture which their average reader is hardly aware of.

In attempts to reach out to their few readers, most of them of a curious variety, those writing about our ‘musicals’ use Tollywood, Bollywood, Kollywood. Deming’s ghost continues to inspire them even today. Back home in India, any ordinary newspaper reader is aware of Bangla and Telugu. If that is the case, why do we need to use Tollywood, which can imply either?

Why is Kollywood, a portmanteau of Kodambakkam, a place renowned for its association with Tamil films and Hollywood, even used in the odd report on Tamil films? What is that one good reason why the Kannada film industry can be referred to as Sandalwood, and its small counterpart in Punjab, Punjwood? Jollywood (Assamese industry), Ollywood (where films in Oriya get made), Sollywood (Sindhi language film industry): India has so many woods that losing our way is easy.

This writer doesn’t pretend to be familiar with all the major Indian languages in which films are made. Hence, making any claim about the frequency of usage of each of these words will be fatuous hypocrisy.  Having stated the obvious, there is no doubt that Bollywood is the biggest among all the woods in the national mainstream media, which has transformed the Hindi film industry into one that produces ‘Indian cinema’ at the expense of others.

Reporters are the inheritors of a flawed legacy, and since most use what they have been handed over with an easy indifference, a person who objects will be seen as an attention-seeking nuisance caviling for the heck of it. Meanwhile, Bollywood will grow as a term without having any specific meaning or having physical space it can call its own like Hollywood does.

The day mainstream media decides to act responsibly and moves towards balanced coverage – here, some optimism is possibly justified – the flipside is that the other woods will start growing as well.  The Malayalam film industry will expand in public consciousness as Mollywood even as those who report on it may or may not know that Mormon cinema in Deming’s homeland is known as Mollywood as well. Some enterprising anchor will start thinking of an attractive term which can be used to describe Marathi cinema. Another Mollywood? No, bad idea, they will realize while trying to use Tollywood in two different contexts once the process of ‘enlightening’ the viewer begins.

Before it happens or waiting to see if it does, what we must do is stop by the woods and think whether we actually need them. If we do away with them, will our environment get affected? Will our films lose their identity, their stars and their individual histories? If so, then we must wait until another Deming comes along.